Q6. Evaluation

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the unit I have used many different pieces of technology to aid me in completing the task of designing a music magazine. I have used different pieces of technology to help me with all aspects of the work, some of which I have used before, whereas some others I have never used until this project. I have learnt how to use pieces of equipment effectively that I could then use in future projects that I have to do. I have used different websites to help me with the written work, and then I have used physical pieces of equipment such as camera in order to get the work done.

The one piece of technology that I have used a lot is the internet. This was used from the very start of the project to get inspiration for my magazine. I used it to find magazine styles and images that looked good, I could then go away and try to copy this for my magazine. I also used the internet when researching different bands/artists and genres for my magazine. I looked for popular magazines and the kind of artists that they have on their magazine and what genre they are. This helped me to choose the genre of my magazine and also the kind of artist that would be likely to feature on the front of my magazine. Another thing that I used the internet for was to research different audiences and the kind of people that would read my magazine. i did this so that I could get an understanding of what they liked in order for me to make my magazine more appealling to them.

I have used a Nikon camera so that I could take pictures of my artist so that I could make the magazine, I have used the cameras Panasonic Lumix TZ10 and the Nikon D40 to take the pictures for my magazine, I found that the Panasonic was more straight forward to use as it was a standard digital camera, whereas the Nikon took better photos in my opinion. The photos were of a higher quality due to the professionalism of the camera, this meant that some of my photos were better than others.

I also used blogger in this project to present my work to show the examiner all the coursework that I have done. Blogger is a good method of doing this as it allows me to present all of my work in a professional way. Posts can then be added, removed, and edited to update the blog. A blog is a good method of presenting all of my work as it can be seen by anyone and it can also be commented on, this means that teachers can give feedback on pieces of work easily. They can also post work to do, so they don't need to give work out in the lesson.

I used a tripod in this project to make my photos a better quality, using a tripod means that I could keep the camera steady when taking the pictures of my model. Keeping the camera steady means that the photos would be a better quality as the camera wouldn't move, this meant that I wouldn't get blurred pictures when looking back through them. This meant that I would have more good images to choose from when making the decision on what images to use for my magazine.

One of the main pieces of technology that I used for the construction of my magazine was Photoshop CS6, I used this to create the magazine pages. Photoshop is a great application that allows you to insert images and text onto a plain canvas, you can then alter the images to look more professional by adding effects and cutting the images to get rid of backgrounds. I used Photoshop for the first time when do the preliminary task, when I first started using it I didn't know how to do anything, but I think that during the project I have developed my understanding and skills on photoshop so that I was able to create a magazine cover, contents and double page spread by the end of it.

Scribd was also used in this project, this was used when I was presenting pieces of work for the course, I put some pieces of work onto scribd as it presented them in a professional way, this made my blog look better and a bit different. Scribd is also good when uploading large documents, this is because they don't take up a lot of space on the blog as they are on a scribd document. The document can then be uploaded onto blogger so that the work is can be accessed and commented on by others. I haven't used Scribd before this task, so this was the first time, I found it straight forward to upload documents on to it and then get them onto my blog.

A piece of technology that I used a lot in the process of constructing my magazine was a memory stick, I used this in order to transfer my work from my laptop at home to the school computer, by doing this it gave me more time to construct the magazine as I could edit it at home and in school time. The memory stick was also used to back up my files, I did this so that if a file was deleted or misplaced I would still have a version of the file.

Prezi was another website that I used to present my work, I hadn't used Prezi before starting this media project so I wasn't able to create some really good and professional presentations straight the way. But after I had used it a couple times I got the hang of it and it gave me another option when presenting my work. Prezi is a more professional way of creating a presentation, Prezi makes it look better and neater, and different from the standard slide show.

The piece of equipment that I used to do all of my coursework on was the school computer and also my laptop at home. When I was in school I used the school computer to do all of my coursework, I used it while i was in a media lesson and when I was in a free. I then used a memory stick so that I could transfer the work that I had done in school to my laptop at home.

The last item is Animoto, I used Animoto to present my pitch to the class, Animoto is a site that puts together images, clips and sounds and puts them into a professional video. I used Animoto as it provides a professional and different way to present a pitch, the video clip does look good when it is created. I have used Animoto before which made the creation of the video quite simple, although Animoto is straight forward to use. So it is easy to make videos even if you have not used it before.